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In the small town of Endora, Iowa, Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) is busy caring for Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio), his mentally challenged brother, as they wait for the many tourists' trailers to pass through town during an annual Airstreamers' Club gathering at a nearby recreational area. His father had hanged himself seven years earlier,[3] and since then his mother, Bonnie (Darlene Cates), has spent most of her days on the couch watching TV and eating. With Bonnie unable to care for her children on her own due to her morbid obesity, Gilbert has taken responsibility for repairing the old house and looking after Arnie, who has a habit of climbing the town water tower, while his sisters Amy (Laura Harrington) and Ellen (Mary Kate Schellhardt) do the rest. The relationship between the brothers is of both care and protection, as Gilbert continually enforces the "nobody touches Arnie" policy. A new FoodLand supermarket has opened, threatening the small Lamson's Grocery where Gilbert works. In addition, Gilbert is having an affair with a married woman, Betty Carver (Mary Steenburgen).

The family is looking forward to Arnie's 18th birthday. A young woman named Becky (Juliette Lewis) and her grandmother are stuck in town when the International Harvester Travelall pulling their trailer breaks down. Gilbert's unusual life circumstances threaten to get in the way of their budding romance. In order to spend time with Becky to watch the sunset, Gilbert leaves Arnie alone in the bath. He returns home late and finds that Arnie is still in the bath the following morning, shivering in the (now cold) water; his guilt is compounded by his family's anger. His affair with Betty ends when she leaves town in search of a new life following her husband's death—he drowned in the family's wading pool after suffering a heart attack. Becky becomes close to both Gilbert and Arnie. While they are distracted during one of their talks, Arnie returns to the water tower that he is always trying to climb. Arnie is arrested after being rescued from the top of the tower, causing his mother—who has not left the house in seven years—to become the object of pointing, laughing, and gawking from the townspeople as she goes to the police station, forcing Arnie's release.

Soon after, Arnie tries to run away yet again from his bath and in his frustration, Gilbert finally snaps, hitting Arnie several times. Guilty and appalled at himself, Gilbert runs out and drives away in his truck without another word. Arnie also runs out and goes to Becky's, who takes care of him for the evening until he is picked up by his sisters. After some soul searching aided by Becky, Gilbert returns home during the birthday party to make amends to his family for running out and to be forgiven by Arnie which, with only the slightest hesitation, he is. He apologizes to his mother for his behavior and promises that he is not ashamed of her and that he will not let her be hurt any more. She admits to Gilbert her knowledge of what a burden she has become to the family, and he forgives her. He introduces her to Becky—something he had been reluctant to do earlier.

Following Arnie's 18th birthday party, Bonnie climbs the stairs to her bedroom for the first time since her husband's suicide. Arnie later tries to wake her but discovers that she has died. The children, not willing to let their mother become the joke of the town by having her corpse lifted from the house by crane, empty their family home of possessions and set it on fire. A year later, Gilbert describes what happened to his family after his mother's death, as Gilbert and his brother Arnie wait by the side of a road for Becky, who arrives with her grandmother, and picks them up.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape was shot in Texas, in various towns and cities; Austin and Pflugerville were primary locations, as well as Manor, where the water tower featured in the film was located.[4]

Film Review quoted actor Leonardo DiCaprio:

I had to really research and get into the mind of somebody with a disability like that. So I spent a few days at a home for mentally retarded teens. We just talked and I watched their mannerisms. People have these expectations that mentally retarded children are really crazy, but it's not so. It's refreshing to see them because everything's so new to them.[5]

The film had a limited release on December 17, 1993 and wide release on March 4, 1994.[6] The wide release garnered $2,104,938 on its first weekend. Total domestic gross for the film was $10,032,765.[7]

The film received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film was given an 89% "Certified Fresh" score and an average rating of 7.3/10 based on 45 reviews. The site's consensus states that the film is "sentimental and somewhat predictable, but those are small complaints, given the tender atmosphere and moving performances at the heart of What's Eating Gilbert Grape."[8]The New York Times film critic Janet Maslin praised DiCaprio's performance, writing "the film's real show-stopping turn comes from Mr. DiCaprio, who makes Arnie's many tics so startling and vivid that at first he is difficult to watch… The performance has a sharp, desperate intensity from beginning to end."[9]Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times described it as "… one of the most enchanting films of the year" and said that DiCaprio deserved to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for which he was nominated.[10] Todd McCarthy of Variety found the film a "bemused view on life" and remarked that "Depp manages to command center screen with a greatly affable, appealing characterization."[11]The Washington Post's Desson Howe thought the film was an earnest but highly predictable effort.[12]Film Review praised Leonardo DiCaprio as the mentally handicapped brother, calling it "a performance of astonishing innocence and spontaneity", bringing "a touching credibility to a very difficult part".[5]

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor, film producer, and environmentalist. He has been nominated for six Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards, winning one of each award from them and three Golden Globe Awards from eleven nominations.

Roseanne

Roseanne is an American television sitcom starring Roseanne Barr and revolving around the fictional Conner family. It aired on ABC from October 18, 1988, to May 20, 1997, and again from March 27, 2018 to May 22, 2018. Lauded for its realistic portrayal of a working-class American family, the series reached No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings from 1989 to 1990.

Manor, Texas

Manor is a city in Travis County, Texas, United States. Manor is located 12 miles northeast of Austin and is part of the Austin-Round Rock metropolitan area. The population was 5,037 at the 2010 census. Manor is one of the faster-growing suburbs of Austin.

Romeo + Juliet

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a 1996 American romantic crime tragedy directed, co-produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann, co-produced by Gabriella Martinelli, and co-written by Craig Pearce. It is an adaptation and modernization of William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the leading roles of Romeo and Juliet, who instantly fall in love when Romeo crashes a party and meets her, despite being members of feuding families. Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino, and Diane Venora star in supporting roles.

Juliette Lewis

Juliette Lake Lewis is an American actress and singer known for her portrayals of offbeat characters, often in films with dark themes. She began her career with small film and television roles in the late 1980s. In 1991 she received acclaim for her performance in Cape Fear, for which she received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.

Marvin's Room (film)

Marvin's Room is a 1996 American drama film directed by Jerry Zaks. The script was written by John Guare and based on the play of the same name by Scott McPherson, who died in 1992. McPherson had completed a screenplay for a film version before he died; however Guare was hired to update it when the film eventually started production years later.

Lasse Hallström

Lars Sven "Lasse" Hallström is a Swedish film director. He first became known for directing almost all music videos by pop group ABBA, and subsequently became a feature film director. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for My Life as a Dog (1985) and later for The Cider House Rules (1999). His other celebrated directorial works include What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) and Chocolat (2000).

Don's Plum

Don's Plum is a 2001 low-budget black and white indie film drama directed by R. D. Robb, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Kevin Connolly. The drama was filmed in 1995–1996, and written by Robb with Bethany Ashton, Tawd Beckman, David Stutman and Dale Wheatley. The film takes place over the course of one night in which a group of young adults discuss life while eating at a diner.

List of Roseanne and The Conners characters

The following is a list of major characters in the television series Roseanne and its successor, The Conners.

List of awards and nominations received by Leonardo DiCaprio

American actor Leonardo DiCaprio has won 54 awards from 161 nominations, and was named runner-up for 4 of those nominations. He has been nominated for six Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards, winning one of each award from them and three Golden Globe Awards from eleven nominations.

Johnny Depp filmography

John Christopher Depp II is an American actor, painter, character actor, comedian, singer, director, song-writer, author, screen-writer, film producer, art director, Discjockey, and rock bassist. and musician. He started his film career by playing Glen Lantz in the 1984 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street. He also appeared in the 1986 film Platoon with Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, and Willem Dafoe. In the 1990s, he starred as the title characters in the films Cry-Baby (1990), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Arizona Dream (1993), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Benny and Joon (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Don Juan DeMarco (1995), Dead Man (1995) and Donnie Brasco (1997). He also starred in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Hunter S. Thompson (1998), The Ninth Gate as Dean Corso (1999), and Sleepy Hollow as Ichabod Crane (1999).

Leonardo DiCaprio filmography

Leonardo DiCaprio is an American actor and producer who started his career performing as a child on television. He appeared on the shows The New Lassie (1989) and Santa Barbara (1990) and also had long running roles in the comedy-drama Parenthood (1990) and the sitcom Growing Pains (1991).
Two years later, he played Tobias Wolff opposite Robert De Niro in This Boy's Life (1993), marking this film as his cinematic debut. He followed this with a supporting role in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 1995, DiCaprio played the American author Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries and the French poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse. The following year he played Romeo Montague in the Baz Luhrmann-directed film Romeo + Juliet (1996). DiCaprio starred opposite Kate Winslet in the James Cameron-directed film Titanic (1997). The film became the highest grossing at the worldwide box-office, and made him famous globally. For his performance, he received the MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance and his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio

Director-actor duo Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have frequently collaborated, making a total of five feature films and one short film since 2002. The pair's films explore a variety of genres, including crime, thriller, biopic and comedy. Several have been listed on many critics' year-end top ten and best-of-decade lists.

Before the Flood (film)

Before the Flood is a 2016 documentary film about climate change directed by Fisher Stevens. The film was produced as a collaboration between Stevens, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Packer, Brett Ratner, Trevor Davidoski, and Jennifer Davisson Killoran. Martin Scorsese is an executive producer.